My Rain dance!!!

-Jinesh Is Dancing in the rains!

-Insane Dance, triggered with unexpected happiness!

-Poodles are his dance floor & wet mud his soap!

-Eyes closed, forehead towards the joyous 'Brishti'!

-Cuddling his Fallen Angel!'

-He knows he might trip again!

-But Has a promise to self!

-Friends would get to see his Raindace!

-Flawless, devoid of Ego Trips, Worldly Shrewdness, This time!

-As a SADHU dancing in ecstasy!

-Completely Present to the Present!

-Devoid of Past or worries of Future!

-Perfectly to the Rhythms of "NOTHINGNESS!"

--Jinesh Bhanu Jain alias Joker Johny

That's Me !!! Slightly Complicated but Unadulterated !!!

That's me !

Few decades back, all the Gods, cutting across religious lines, very worried over something, assembled themselves in one big corner of the Eden.

Of this lot for all obvious reasons maximum were the Hindu Gods & Deities; more than 33 crores, very much as mentioned in the Hindu Mythology - and increasing daily !

All Gods were terribly upset, angry and somewhat afraid of this lad who though born in a small town, relatively less read-less travelled had somehow learnt the true ways of their great kingdoms. The evil creations of belief, morality, virtue, righteousness etc. formed the kingdoms of the Gods and ensured all humans lived a suppressed life governed by God's hoodlums everywhere.

This lad was telling people about breaking away from the shackles of all these kingdoms and to live a life full of unadulterated, divine & eternal happiness thus available.

People had now started to believe in the lad. Now there were lesser queues outsides churches, temples, mosques and so on. The monetary collections of all religious gangsters were showing decline, worldwide!

Very worried, the Gods exchanged thoughts amongst themselves and unanimously cursed this lad to be on an aimless wanderlust for his lifetime!
To be on the move, no one by him, no one to be called his & no place to be called his own! This was the God's punishment to the lad for trying to displace the Gods from their high & supreme positions!

God's are God's & shall remain so probably ! There word started to work upon the lad’s mortal life. The wanderlust of the lad started! From one place to another, one relationship to other; magic happened - very suddenly his own people stopped recognising him!

The poor lad did not understood for lots of years that it a curse & a conspiracy of the God's to punish him for his effort to give people freedom from a life bound by dead religious customs & verdicts ! The lad was told about this by a fairy; who had fallen from the skies in his arms.

The lad closed his eyes, thought for a moment. The thought of being CURSED was painful. The only way to get his roots for the lad was to uproot the Gods & their collective curse. Mammoth task & insurmountable.

He raised his eyes towards the skies and told to the Gods' " If you all want so - "SO IT WILL HAPPEN !" - " But I challenge you!"

The lad with his closed eyes & head towards the skies DECLARED, “ I bless myself to live & roam around aimlessly till this planet's each human has broken away from the shackles created by you GODS & now on this entire universe would be my family !"

And then he broke into laughters & giggles cuddling the 'Fallen Angel' in his arms !

Since then the battle is on ! Gods as ever are Gods! And the lad is me - Jinesh Bhanu Jain Alias 'Joker Johny'.

Hi!!! The Last One. Somewhat Long & Verbose But a Good Reading!!, I Proactively Seek feedback From Friends- Right From The Heart ( Read On!! Good)

Travelogue 6

Hi Friends!!!!!

Thoughts are playing havoc in my mind!!! Memoirs of this trip, interwoven with the memories and wonderful incidences of my eventful growing up, my earlier travels, people/personalities who have/had graced my life, events/eventualities, incidences & influences, readings/studies etc. are continuously occupying my mind, continuously asking me to sit down and pen it; in a systematic & in a very detailed storytelling manner.

Mrs. Mrinal Pandey, a noted & eminent author of Hindi & a TV Personality, having her origins very much in Garhwal, the very place I am sitting currently at; had described this as an experience of " Labor Pain by a writer/author".

Very different than what happens to politicians after seeing an eager audience & a public addressing system; i.e. a desire to give a speech or even a ”CHAPAAS", an urge to be published, of a novice writer. Not even a fad or eagerness of sharing with someone. Something more of a “SWANTAYAH SUKHAYAH” (for the happiness of oneself), feeling!

The way the work/impression has taken shape in my mind, gives me a reason to believe that it would work out far better and interesting than “ To Hell & Back” – (at the synopsis level for the past three years) & “ Jeevansaathi Dot Dot “ – (again at the synopsis level for the past three years); both looking for the suitable motivation and kicks on my bum to get ahead with them.

But I do not wish to go on with penning anything on this trip now on, transfixed & lured simultaneously by various more interesting activities/options staring at me at this excursion, asking me to get my priorities straight; plenty of skirts to be chased, placid coffees at the German Bakery, loafing around aimlessly for hours and kilometers, my habit of sitting by the Ganges for hours, sitting at the terrace of my hotel and flirting with my beautiful & busty Italian neighbor ‘Sibana’ till dawn, standing in the midst of Laxman Jhoola and feeling as Ganges was flowing just beneath me, as if kissing my feet; looking at the dark Hills of the Himalayas trying to figure out as to, how incomplete would this world be without this unique symmetry of The Holy Ganges & The Himalayas?

Window shopping at all kind of shops, entering my hotel restaurant's kitchen and cooking Indian dishes so good that even the owner is surprised and later gives me opportunity to cook for one actual customer, taking extremely indulgent massages and my customary ritual of a long bath with 45 minutes under hot & cold shower alternatively, all too awesome and satisfying that I want the words playing Rugby in my mind with the ongoing exercise of trying to figure out what would look good, to an ultimate rest. It’s ruining the fun.

Also my forthcoming handing over of my current office at my Corporate Office at Hyderabad soon for which I have already received the tickets ex-A’bad and various checklists, talks with my future employers, me more concerned this time, rather than discussions about role, CTC, responsibilities etc., to requesting them to give me a chair in Ahemdabad. None is looking obliging till now; it seems like Mumbai this time.

Everything put together a pretty messy collage of occupancy of mind & mindset is what I am undergoing; not at all conducive to the process of creation. Though, I have carefully avoided it in my past four mails, my imminent divorce also remains a major demon in my mind, killing all the peace continuously.

A good number of my female friends are regularly poking me and questioning me as to what happened to my travel partner in my journey from Delhi to Dehradun??? What transpired between us??? I will answer this riddle. No stuff that any one of you must have thought!

That beautiful young girl turned out to be a student of Theology with Christianity as her subject of study. In the entire 8-9 hours long journey we kept on discussing religion & spirituality-my favourite subject!! Lots of debates, arguments, agreements/disagreements, facts/myths, viewpoints and sharing knowledge were the very unique part of the journey. In the end proximity for obvious reasons developed which only ended at the end of the journey by blessing her and her very handsome & cute boyfriend Stanley' who had come to receive her for a great life ahead!!! First time in my life maybe I got to actually embrace two grown up person with showering blessings and instructions to the girl’s boyfriend to take good care of her lifelong. Now I have grown old so more of these will follow, the blessings stuff. Princey & Stanley both are in the list of recipients of this mail!!!

Regarding the other story of that Norwegian girl regularly hitting my hotel room, catching me in the Aruna Irani-Rishi Kapoor- Bobby situation twice, as if she knew my unpredictable washing routine; made me later visit her guest house daily. The entire thing in the end turned out to be a great sarcastic saga. I do not have to add too much masala into it to make it an interesting reading. But for the "concerned" readers no national loss of rubber actually happened & no purse was stolen. But whatever happened will keep me in splits for years to come. I plan to keep it here as it is and write the entire story as a standalone thing. Bursts of laughter’s, giggles, and broad grins assured!!!!

The only worth mentioning achievement is my messing up with three of my Ahemdabad female friends, two over alcohol, both late night telephonic accidents.

I permanently lost my old cherished friends; angel faced friend actually worthy to me – this girl kept me glued to her, apart from all the other good reason, by her loveable stupidity. Entering my large bachelors den; probably the most well appointed, well equipped and tidily maintained bachelors dig in entire Ahemdabad; immediately after her arrival starting to point at a self assumed/witnessed untidiness in various spheres of my home. After I got up smiling and with a mop or a duster corrected all these pointed out flaws as a designated Mr.Ramu of my home; only then the meeting proceeded to refreshments or any other further talk.

The second great aspect of this lady has been stunning & shocking me with her investigations about my character, persona and my profession at very regular intervals. In the first couple of days when we had met some months back; rather a long time back, she gave me sufficient and enough reasons to believe that one of my seven female professional contacts were spreading rumours about me on my professional network. Resulting me to blatantly block seven of them from my LinkedIn connection list; permanently severing my relations with them, only to learn later that she got some stupid feedback from a very junior colleague of mine in my past assignment and just to hide his identity she forwarded these seven names picked up by her from my network!!!!

Whatever; I always have died to go out with her, fine dining, movies, small walks and somewhat like her and adore.( Avoiding to use the past tense).

The bloody mistake I committed, getting high; sitting by The Ganges late night, devoted ample of time to tell/convince her that rather than sitting over the possibility of marrying me; explore outside, meet people, get better in life and keep me as a friend!!! I went on going to further vulgar limits of explaining her to look for “ deep pockets” not Adonis’s or good human beings. Further where and how “ deep pockets” could be found and how they are to be obtained & retained in one’s life!!! I had forgotten that my friend herself hailed from an extremely upper class background and behind this my entire monologist conversation with her, my thought process must have been to keep the shackles of marriage away for a long time to come. I also had used lots of foul language trying to emphasize upon my points in my Punjabi Hindi; which I switchover to whenever I want to.

Next morning, my cell was full of sms’s from her, cursing me for my outlook to life and yes the foul language used by me. She bid me goodbye for ever; and I know, as I know her and the entire gamut of relationships a bit; this was final & ultimate.

Over the years I have become kind of inert to breaking bondings; but this time the pain has been near myocardial, and is being felt by me every moment.

I will keep on waiting on all weekends and Sunday afternoons for that crazy call “ hey listen, I am hungry as hell; going to Pride for lunch, join me in 20 minutes”; perplexed me arguing “ not even bathed yet and Pride is itself 30 minutes drive from my place-you nuts”. The stubborn reply coming “that’s your headache, ensure you are shaven; suitably dressed and please ensure that you eat with proper etiquettes, not needing a ‘bib’ for yourself”. Further- “bring a 50 rupees note for the tips”.

I do not know why I do this to me & my people. I had last tasted alcohol in 2004, did lots of screw ups till then. This year already 4 times and this is the damage!!!! Now nobody needs to guess which side of the road where a wine shop or a bar is I am going to walk, now on!!!!!!!

The second loss was a new entrant in my life. A beautiful, soft spoken, Punjabi Khatri girl. This special ‘Punjabi Khatri’ emphasis has a deep rooted meaning. My Management Institute flooded from crowd from Delhi, Chandigarh & Punjab had ample of beautiful, intelligent girls, lots being Punjabi Khatri’s. Several were my friends, some I have reasons to believe found my company good and an entire other set was liked by me but they never were too enthusiastic about me.

My first serious affair was also with a very distinguished, beautiful Punjabi Khatri girl. Probably the only person I confided in regarding everything, 1993 thru 1996. The breakup of the same happened because of intervention of my parents due to this “ Jain” factor; had an ever enduring impact on my all spheres of life; till date. Had it not been my benevolent colleagues at Kolkata & Orissa who in that obsessed phase of mine helped me to come out of it and get back to work; I think I would have travelled back to Indore and killed my own father!!!! Not kiddin!

Though coming out of it, living in hotels for months on strech, all alone, no one to talk to, in various parts of Orissa for months & months; working on projects, took quite some time. Some of those colleagues who got over a working relationship and much further above the extremely politicized environment we worked in, are in the recipient list of this mail, I will always remain indebted to you particularly, Swarnendu & a very kind Bhabiji.

Anyways, this lady apparently got pretty confused after reading these notes of mine and as to what my true persona was and what values, morals, career/life objectives concerned me? I had given her ample fuel by talking foolishly to her in the very initial stages of a relationship, in a drunk Ganges Bank moment at a late night, about my schedule and priorities at Hrishikesh, consisting of chasing skirts, getting drunk, mentioning of my drooling around in the Shamshan Ghat at 1’O clock in the morning, near Ganges; with a funeral pier still lighted up for good!!!!! Several other stuff that’s always ready with me to scare some ladies; on a lookout for a sedate/homely/traditional relationship.

She escaped leaving a decent goodbye sms next morning.

Baby, I am a worked up executive & a screwed up individual, just following my heart over a vacation.

The third one; more forgiving because of her Landmark Training, later accommodated me but with lots of lectures. Landmark works; but not taking chances, I want to add more inventory in my coffers so that I do not get out of stock in the near future. Any takers!!!!!!!! Drop in a mail, Ahemdabad only; not kidding.

Anyways I leave it here with the pictures to be shared; the writing part left for the future; or may be for never!!!!

Chow!!!!!!

Regards,

Travel Diary 5 : Hrishikesh 1 - A paradise away from heaven! A wonderful escape!!! A place to stop by for days (Practicing the Art of Doing Nothing!!!

I had taken out just few hours from my Haridwar Hotel's comfort, thinking that Hrishikesh was something like Haridwar - All of a ruin!!!

How wrong totally !!!!

In my five hours long, mouth agape visit to Hrishikesh, I was convinced that I should drop anchor here for some days and do nothing!!!! Clear, free flowing Ganges, much better than Haridwar, Himalayas in the backdrop, lots of Yoga & Meditation classes, Language Classes, Massage Centres, Coffee Shops and most importantly various Sports and Activities like Rafting, Trekking, Camping, Safari etc. would entice anybody on his holidays!

I had read on Google, that Hrishikesh got prominence after Beatles visited Hrishikesh in 1964 to meet their Yoga & Spritual Guru Mahirshi Mahesh Yogi.

Mahirshi Yogi was the Guru to several celebrities in Hollywood & West including Michael Jackson. Mahirshi Mahesh Yogi incidentally hails from the place where my roots are i.e. Jabalpur, and together with him the origin of OSHO, the famed hindi satirist - Hari Shankar Parsai to Bollywood's Sharat Saxena & also our own Sambha- Mac Mohan; from Jabalpur, is dropped in by me during conversations in trains etc to get leverage for my stature there, that point in time.

Anyways since the visit of Beatles, the foreigners started flocking Hrishikesh; and that remains the case till date.

Hrishikesh has two ends prominently; the Ram Jhoola & the Laxmam Jhoola. The walk over both is fabulous; giving different meaning to Ganges at different times in Morning, Afternoon, Evening & Night. Especially at the late night, when the entire town is sleeping, standing in the midst of either of these Jhoolas, feeling the mild breeze hitting your chest, inhaling it and looking down at the Ganges flowing down the Jhoola; Ganges flowing down with slight beautiful noise t tickling your ear is one unique experience. I took it thrice; once dead drunk (loosing a female friend over this) and twice sane. Wonderful!!!!

On both sides of the river are hotels, lodges, dharmashalas costing various rates. I chose to go for luxury this time and going by the Travel Book " The Lonely Planet " booked Hotel Ishaan at Laxman Jhoola with ample of river view from the room, the balcony, the two terraces above my room and two beautiful Restaurants in the Hotel itself!!! The rooms were well appointed with nearly all 3 star facilities at a throw away price!!! Off season!! I paid the hotel ample of advance so that I got committed to stay there long. Now I did not wanted to go to Yamunotri & Gangotri immediately. I just wanted to be here - Doing Nothing!!!!

The accounts of Hrishikesh could go very long. As such these are just jottings I am making.

The most notable experience of my stay remains a Norwegian very beautiful, seductive gal entering my room, without alarm and catching me in all my Michaelangloishness; me fresh out of the bathroom, after a wash; the girl claiming that she was there just to admire the room. She kept on coming; we agreed to leave for Dharmashala and stay there for some days but something happened! Thats very hilarious. Some other time.

Work is calling!!! Let me see how long can I defy it!!!!!


Regards,

Haridwar - 2 Never come here to stay as a tourist!!!!!

Hi!

This is the only advise by me to any of you who decides to undertake travel to this side of the country; never take a big stopover at Haridwar. It is not worth it.

Haridwar has his owns religuos importance to the Hindus, that is unquestioned. But even for somebody who wants to be here for religious reasons, apart from The Evening Aarti of Ganges, some temples at the very same, Har Ki Paudi where the aarti is held and some temples at slight distance, nothing actually is there.

I had gone looking for some signs of the gone era where the wealthy Bengali Jamindaars, ladies from their families, other people who could afford it to come and stay here in the PASHCHIM ( PACHAYIN or WEST) [Haridwar is to the west of undivided/divided Bengal} primarily for religious, rest, peace & health reasons. Nearly all great Bengali novelist have mentioned this phenomenon in their celebrated works be it be Saratchandra, Rabindranath Tagore etc. After Varanasi, Haridwar was one place for ostracized widows to spend their balance of life in huge misery.


The signs of that era are gone, though the old big mansions like Dharmashalas etc remain. Several akhadas, dharmashalas for all religion, jaati people.


All commercialized. Rather heavily commercialized. From the mid of the town walking to the 3 kms or less stretch of road is walking on a wide road with all kind of shops on the both sides. Religious stuff like Rudraksha, gems, clothes, eateries everything. Autorickshaws trying to run you over, cycle rickshaws trying to climb over you, all.

The only find of me was to get to speak to a Haridwar Panda and try and get his trade secret. If anybody aware that his family was doing the Shraadha rites for the families ancestors at Haridwar, but was not aware about the name of the Panda doing it, he just had to announce himself at the Ghats of Har Ki Paudi. The Pandas going by his Jati, Surname, Town & Mohalla will dig it out in some minutes. His entire ancestral details are with them. The panda telling me regarding this phenomenon excitedly told me several time that they were faster than a computer.

I too in a very vocal & animated tone explained him the importance and feasibility of going for an ERP package like SAP R/3, BAAN or Peoplesoft for the purpose of linking all vultures practicing as Pandas at Haridwar, Varanasi or Gaya in the collective business of screwing gullible public with a very evident advantage that if by mistake a prospective customer of Haridwar landed up at Gaya or Varanasi; could be directed to suitable location of slaughter. Plus this way a perfect account management would be possible. Direct mailers etc etc. Looking at the perplexed face of those two pandas, I moved on.


The better place to camp, stay and enjoy is Hrshikesh. Hrishikesh pictures in next mail.

Travel Diary 3 : Haridwar - The Mass Hysteria of Ganges Worship in the Eve !!!

Hi All!

The entire practice of worshiping Fire, Rivers, Trees, Dieties, Idols whatever; had never appealed to me after I had been able to give some rationale thought over it.

In particular chanting useless/meaningless aartis; which if translated in vernacular lingo, would come very close to nursery rhymes. These had always generated lot of apathy within me whenever I came across it in any religion.

If you look at it closely people would appear to you doing it as a taught habit since childhood, some fear, asking for some favour from the lord etc. Most of the time these people would not be aware of the meaning of what they were chanting. And the aartis ( prayers) i.e. OM Jai Jagdish Hare or further poems in the praise of lord, interwoven with the music of some popular film's hit musical score, sung or played over a really loud speaker; BHAGWAN BACHAYE!!!!

I am not pointing fingers at Hinduism only, Jainism has taken all aspects of Hinduism the very religion against which it evolved to give relief to the people of around 800 BC together with Buddhism.

One branch of Jainism does not worships Idols at all and the emphasis is upon " Swadhyayas" ( Self Study), meditation & Introspection. Though the followers of this branch are not big in number.

Buddhism in its true form as its practised every where gives lots of room for meditation, self study, introspection etc. But chanting happens in lot of sub sets of Buddism's primary sub sets of Heenyana, Vajrayana & Mahayana. One of the newer sub sect only expects its follower to chant. The more empowerment you need, more you chant! What was the meaning of what you were chanting - DO NOT KNOW???!!!!! The Tibetan, more gullible & simple followers of Buddism are mostly into chanting.

Coming to Parsi's I am yet to study much about them as to their logic of mad & eccentric Fire Worship.

The Jews take lots of "Sabbaticals", which is a time taken out by them for praying, introspecting, being with themselves. Purifying. They do not make noise. But I am sure entire Palestine listens to the other noise they make!

The Christians offer prayers to Jesus & Mother Mary in an organised, systematic manner. Though what comes out of the meanings of those prayers is asking for small things from The Lord and thanking The Lord for small favours to Lord for the small/big favors The Lord bestowed to them. Wonderful!!! No complexity!!! As such the entire Bible is very simple as a religuos book should be and even The New Testament is all about simple things like " Love Thy Neighbor". Here there are no mediators like the Panas/Pundits of Hindu's. Though I regularly take the help of either of 3 Preists of the St. Paul Church, Bandra for my periodical confessions; post that they do not need me and dont need them.

Even a Christian burial is a very calm & sober event.

Islam is one great religion where a kid during his "Dini Taalim" is taught the basics of Islaam & the meaning & Importance of " Namaaz". Though the "AZAAN" is done over the loudspeaker, still somehow I find those brief moments very peaceful and as if I am being asked to connect with the GOD at least for that point in time.

The act of purifying oneself is done in Jainism & Islaam both; but is followed with more rigidity by Muslims worldwide.

I may go on, and going on over this in a diary; but what triggered me here was having a look in the pics of Ganga Puja at Haridwar; much much ahead in INSANITY of ISCON FOLLOWERS!!! Sheer Madness!

The travel diary 2 : Witty account till leaving Delhi

Wait a moment : This small piece below was finished by me some five days back and accounts for events till my leaving Delhi on my wanderlust. Till here, it is more of a cheap account of my witty effort to move on in my life. Post this also I kept on penning as I kept on moving, travelling, meeting & interacting with people etc. What shape it started to take showed a possibility to me of being a piece which travelled forth & between the genre of a travelougue, observation about people, religion, spritualism, culture etc. So I would keep it with me, working upon it in a serious manner and share it, if at all I complete it satisfactorily!!



Disclaimer : The below piece has gone thru the test of MS Word for the check of spellings, grammer, punctuations, thesaurus etc. Still if any discrepancy is found the same should not be blamed upon me, it should be blamed on The Microsoft Corporation & Mr. Bill Gates. I as such have been brought up with the training that " Prepositions are a curse upon English".



Hi Friends!!!

Post my first verbose & open mail, a novelty to me, an anxiety had got built within me!!! How would it be received by my friends ?? Most know me quiet personally but whether was I intruding in the privacy of not so closely known/new friends was the area of discomfort.


Friends got back!!!! Over mail, phone and sms. Different responses, suggestions, praise, jealousy all. None critique or criticism ( as such the later is not expected from friends in these situations, but my low self esteem always somehow expects that.)

Most notably " Jiye jaa pyaare" type two mails from very senior friends. Two suggesting not to abstain from writing about the journey for different reasons & many asking which place was the scenic natural beauty from: sorry, I should have mentioned that earlier in the first mail; it is Mussorie. Lots of phone calls and sms's were received, thanks!


Most notably a close friend from Ahemdabad, clearly mentioning that she was jealous, wanted to take a break from work and join me. Excited, in moments I drew up her journey plan onwards Ahemdabad to Mussorie. But my fickle minded friend after deliberations of around 60 minutes over phone, changed her mind only to listen some exasperated four letter words from me ( rather lots of them). It took me half a day and some 100 sms to get her kind enough over me, to bestow me with her kind friendship again (actually only discerning males know the actual cost of kind friendships of beautiful females: the major component of the cost is Mental Stress.) Lesson from the incidence; mind your tongue in front of your female friends otherwise you will just end up making Mobile companies, Flower shops, Gift shops & Costly Eateries richer!


My journey plan was initially Delhi to Haridwar and onwards. As usual my ever "Vighnakaari" brother Rajesh did the honors. First he made me lure into staying in Delhi overnight with various temptations like " Gaffar Market Shopping" etc. And provided further icing to the cake by speaking to a commonly known, very respectable contact of ours in the Honorable Chief Minister's office of Uttrachal, and got me a status of " Guest of the State of Uttarachal" for the Kumbh Mela in Haridwar. The idea of travelling entire Uttarachal or part of it in a guided and partially State funded manner enticed the " Marwaari" within me.


Some 8 hrs later we received a call from Dehradun requesting to postpone my visit to Haridwar by 4-5 days as there were already close to 9 million people in Haridwar for the " Shahi Snan" on 14th of April, and no more official guests could be treated suitably.


At such moments, sulking is the only choice that remains with any young person in front of his elder kins, which I duly exercised. I had lost one day!!!! I also had to change my entire journey plan to via Mussorie now.


Rajesh bhai tried to appease me by throwing a small binge party for me at his office at Delhi. Being a converted non/rare drinker, I got high quiet early; later to receive the first bliss of the over smartness we had tried to do in the day, concerning that Guest of the State issue; a friend of mine had gone to Goa for a religious cum pleasure purpose, and we caught each other dead drunk in the night over phone. I consider this lady as a precious find of mine in Ahemdabad. Both being Landmark Graduates, speak the same lingo plus net net I enjoy talking to her about movies, music, life etc. We just connect well. We have expressed clearly to have no further mutual plans. She is a wonderful counselor to me, who without wasting words puts me back to work. Her trained counselors act in the West is coming good use to me.


So, it was hours of meaningless gossiping & sharing only to resolute in a lesser sleep in the night and a great hangover in the morning after waking up, actually first time in life. If you want to see someone who has insulted the Divine Elixir " Chivas Regal" by waking up with an hangover after it, should come to me.



Anyways, Rajesh bhai and part of his Delhi office team together with me left from the historic Teen Murti Lane to drop me to ISBT Delhi to get me a VOLVO for Dehradun. From there after an overnight stay I planned to leave for Mussorie. During the whole way to the ISBT, Delhi; Rajesh Bhai kept on poking me as usual. Challenging me to make me speak him to my travel partner midway to confirm with him/her that he/she by then was not dead of my verbal diarrhea. Also he religiously cursed me that I were to get an bearded, smelling, snoring, dirty oldman as my travel companion & me arguing childishly, challenging him that I would get a beautiful young girl as a travel partner!!


No sooner we reached ISBT Delhi; one blunder was evident to me; apart from my Chocó Pack Bag Pack & Laptop a new nuisance had added up. A newly purchased black leather bag stuffed with the indulgent shopping of required/not required cosmetics, several types of imported Tea boxes etc. from Gaffar Market. Now I had three large luggages, one could be carried on back, what about the balance two??? If not impossible, it was certainly making my journey ahead difficult & inconvenient. Also now I was clear I will have to make base camps wherever from I planned to take 2-4 days treks!!! Meaningless expenditure.


Here also my dear Rajesh Bhai came to my help. He authoritatively summoned the old parking lot care taker. I was relieved; he was getting help for me. No sooner the old man in the uniform of some regular type agency reached us, Rajesh bhai very quickly thrusted some currency notes in his hands and replacing his Mumbai accent, in a very typical hard Delhite hindi told him to ensure that I boarded any bus for anywhere and under any circumstances never ever returned back to Delhi!!!!


I think I had a pale face then and the old man was perplexed, puzzled. He sometime looked at the currency notes in his hands and many a times at Rajesh bhai's face, looking for a confirmation that what he had heard was correct. Devendra the Delhi office guy & the driver Sanjay watching this drama from behind burst into giggles. Unmoved, Rajesh bhai once again repeated the verdict for me to the old man. I was shaking my head in disbelief over this and the old man I am sure must be thinking that some big law enforcement agency was entrusting him with the job of sending an Al Qaida terrorist to the Andaman s!


The entanglement was broken after some time & lots of moments of embarassment to me and finally I was offered a farewell by digging out a costly original Deodorant from my own possessions & Rajesh Bhai spraying it all over me as a very kind housewife sprays “ HIT “ in her homely abod;, in very decent & adequate quantities to keep all kinds of bugs & pests away, with an explanation by Rajesh bhai that as I was not good for anything, this adequate spray of deodarant would make me slightly acceptable to the opposite sex if I encountered any by chance! The balance of my imported original Lomani was immediately handed over to Sanju the driver, to be used as a car air freshener. Bastard! Rajesh, for this sinful waste and universal loss of a Lomani, as an old Lomani fan I will punish you for this in Kol. That’s my terrain!!!! I will ensure that you wander whole night in the oblivions of some nightmarish place in North Kolkata or isolated parts of Howrah or Hugli with no one to offer you lift or shelter only to rob you or stab you!!! May God help me in this....!!! ( Only if God had been kinder to me this would have happenned several years back when I had sworn similarly; he had made me dance in a top class Dance Bar of Mumbai with carefully selected dance girls by him, in a private but gliterrati full patrty of his; post this caught him several time in Kol but rather than putting him to this sworn punishments I just helped him with his crutial business meetings in Kol and like an obidient lamb left Kol flying at my own cost).


Anyways jokes apart. My journey started. Managing to drag the three luggages, asking directions somehow reached the Uttarachal buses platform. I am sure the ISBT Bus Terminal of Delhi was a far better place some 3 decades back.

Leaving Delhi has given me a kind of mild pain always. So I kept on feeling it in my chest. The rest is meaningless. I got an AC bus though non VOLVO for Dehradun much before my expectance. Praying for getting a seat for the jouney, with all my baggage I climbed the bus. I politely requested the conductor for a seat and that to in the front. The conductor much to my surprise told me that I could choose any of the seats which were vacant. I sheepishly surveyed the occupancy of the bus; there were some 5-7 seats vacant in the bus. 1 each besides uninteresting fat males, 2-3 in the absolute backside and yes two seats available with stag girls sitting in different rows. I further narrowed my search. The first girl was sitting at the conductor’s seat on the window side and was looking attractive & appeared careless and friendly the way had seated herself. The slightly behind one a skinny, dusky, younger, intelligent looking girl; sitting again at the window seat.


I chose the more beautiful & mature looking gal sitting in the front conductor’s seat for all obvious reasons and split second evil calculations of my mind and signaled to the conductor of my choice. The conductor negated my idea by informing that it was the conductor’s seat and I could take any other seat. Very quickly, as if there was a queqe behind me for seats; and somebody else would make me poorer of the second most lucrative option besides the other girl; I signaled to the conductor towards the other seat, took his nod and thinking of Rajesh bhai’s reaction over this and massive achievement/luck of mine dragged my baggage to the aisle seat besides that young gal.


To continue...................................................................